Brief Notes on the Rescensions of Ignatius' Epistles

Schoedel and Lightfoot appear to speak favorably regarding the middle recension of the Ignatian epistles but the long and short recensions continue to spark controversy. For a helpful discussion of all three recensions, see W. Schoedel's Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.

The Syriac version of the Ignatian Epistles is also known as the short recension and it is "nothing more than an abridgement" of the epistles to Polycarp, the Ephesians and the letter to the Romans which includes a paragraph from Trallians. See Schoedel 3, and consult ftn. 15 on the same page for more details. See https://books.google.com/books?id=3UEYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=syriac+version+ignatius&hl=en&sa=X&ei=m7V1VanDD4qTsAXOyYOwCg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=syriac%20version%20ignatius&f=false

The Berlin papyrus for these works is dated 5th century and it contains Smyrneans 3.3-12.1.

It is also known as cod. 10581 or P. See http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ignatius-intro.html